Non Laughing Love" -- Original Pen and Ink Drawing by John Austen

Kent, England, 1934. Good to very good. Toned and sunned with light dust soiling.. Original pen and ink drawing by the famed British illustrator John Austen, completed in 1934 and titled by him in pencil "Non Laughing Love" in the lower left-hand corner. The image depicts a stylized winged putti holding a laughing theatrical mask aloft, with another resting on the left. The background is comprised of dense, wild flora. Austen (1886-1948) was a prominent figure in the so-called "Golden Age of Illustration" heavily influenced by Art Deco and, earlier in his career, the work of Aubrey Beardsley. This piece was done when Austen had returned from London to rural Kent, and had become influenced by Greek vases and his rural surroundings; this Grecian influence is apparent in the cherub's hair, and the theatrical masks, while his rural surroundings are reflected in the background. Measures approx. 10" by 13.75", matted to 15" by 15". Red colored pencil numeration to upper right-hand corner ("22"-- perhaps denoting a series). John Archibald Austen (Dover (Kent), 5 January 1886 – Hythe (Kent), 27 October 1948) was an English book illustrator. His early works, including a fine Hamlet, were Beardsleyesque in style, but after 1925 he was influenced by the Art Deco movement. Books which he illustrated in this manner include Daphnis and Chloe and As You Like it. Austen used several techniques in his illustrations, including wood-engraving and scraperboard, and changed styles to suit the text he was illustrating. He was also involved in advertising, producing adverts, several posters & numerous dust wrapper designs. He was a friend of Alan Odle and Harry Clarke and exhibited with them at the St George's Gallery in 1925. The novelist Dorothy Richardson wife of Alan Odle wrote about him in John Austen and the Inseparables (London: William Jackson, 1930).